Once we were all up, dressed, and had eaten breakfast, we quickly discussed the situation outside and Ainslee muttered, “Assholes, the statement that the Vanguard released told those vultures to leave us the fuck alone.” Well, it hadn’t said exactly that, it was a lot more official sounding and a lot less angry, but the idea was the same.

“Yeah, but since when do journalists give a shit about that?” one of the twins, who I was pretty sure was Sammie, commented acidly.

“This is going to be like when you pressed charges against that big blue asshole in the first place, isn’t it, Ainslee?” the other twin, Selina, asked with a miserable look on her face. “Those vultures are gonna follow you around and drag your name through the mud all over again.”

“Our lives only just got back to normal too, or as close as it gets for us these days,” Sammie added with a frown.

“I’ll handle it,” Ainslee said with a grim look on her face. I was a little worried that my best friend was about to do something drastic before she explained, “I did some research after the last time and there are laws in place in Amethyst Harbour to protect people from having reporters camped out on in front of their homes or following them and their families around. The media doesn’t make it common knowledge because they want to be able to question as much as possible and provoke reactions from the people they’re harassing, even if they can’t get official interviews or exclusives.”

“So, why doesn’t it look like you’re happy about it?” Kelly asked, looking concerned.

Ainslee groaned as she looked toward the front door. “Because, as the target of their attention, I’ll need to do something I’d rather not do. According to statute M-78, if I give an official statement on camera, even if that statement is just telling them to fuck off, they have to leave it at that and leave me alone unless I agree to an interview. I’ll probably still get calls asking me to do interviews, but I can block those.”

“You don’t have to,” I told her gently. I could see in her eyes how little she liked that idea. It would be too much like giving them what they wanted. “I could just sneak us out by teleporting. Moonlight could sneak us out by turning ethereal too, but I don’t think she could carry both you and Kelly at once, and teleportation is faster. I could teleport the twins to the mall for work too, if needed.”

A sad shake of her head preceded my best friend’s reply. “No, Lily, that would just be putting off the inevitable, and Mom would have to deal with their shit when she gets home. I’ll go outside, say a few words to get them to fuck off, and then we can teleport to the base. You’ll all be late for your training otherwise.”

She was probably right. In fact, it would probably be a good idea for me to get ahead of this too. They may not have an address for me yet, but it was stated in the transcripts that I was a Vanguard recruit, so they might try to harass me at school. “Fine,” I replied, “but if you’re doing this, I’m going with you. You’re my best friend, and I have your back.”

Poppy half-crushed me in a hug. “Be careful out there, Love.” She made it sound like we were going off to war instead of facing down the media.

Then as my girlfriend released me, Kelly advised me and Ainslee, “Try not to do anything threatening because they would be sure to use that against you. Just make a quick statement, don’t let them ask any questions, and be calm and professional. Maybe reference that stature so they know that you know your rights.”

“I guess that’s the best we can do,” I agreed before turning back to my best friend as I considered what I wanted to say. “Let’s get this over with so we can get going. I have other things to do today.”

Ainslee headed for the front door as I rode on her shoulder, and I could feel her tenseness as she opened the door and headed toward the front gate to the property. As soon as she stepped into sight, the media hounds began to excitedly bark, the cacophony of dozens of people trying to be heard over one another as we approached. Questions were being hurled as soon as we were within range to pick up individual voices among the droning of many. “Miss Mackenzie, how are you…”

My friend immediately cut the question off to say, “I would like to make a statement.” The droning of voices immediately quieted as cameras and holo-recorders were aimed in our direction. Once she had their attention, Ainslee simply stated, “Terry Lundburg is a psychopath and I’m glad that he is finally facing justice for his crimes. That is all, I will not be taking any questions.”

I turned on my voice projection app and flitted from her shoulder as the vultures began to protest. It seemed that many of them hadn’t even noticed me on her shoulder. “I’m Lily Pierce, and I too would like to make a statement regarding the attack on us by Terry Lundburg and Karen Smythe, and the hearing that followed.”

They were all now very focused on my tiny form, hovering in the air in front of their cameras. They were likely hoping for something more from me than what they had gotten out of my friend, but I was only too happy to deny them that as I stated. “Justice has been served, and we just want to go back to our lives. In accordance with statute M-78, I ask you to please disperse and leave us alone. I will not be taking any questions either. Goodbye.”

It was short, and to the point, and I was very happy to see the realization, disappointment, and frustration bloom on the faces of the reporters in attendance. I paid them no more attention as followed Ainslee back toward the house and then inside. The set of Ainslee’s shoulders still looked tense, and I was still a little on edge myself, despite getting that business out of the way.

The moment that we were both safely inside the house, Ainslee slumped against the wall in relief as she muttered, “Well, that was fun. I’m glad it’s over with.”

Thanks to my teleportation ability, we were able to get to Vanguard Tower for our respective tasks a few minutes early, despite our encounter with the media. While Captain Monroe was pushing me to push my limits with my Water magic, and teaching me new ways to do so, my girlfriend and sister were getting similar training with their natural abilities and Ainslee was going through a mountain of paperwork for both the Vanguard and the university and then registering for her classes.

In the end, Ainslee decided to take a program for Magitech Engineering, which focused on studying the fusion of magic and technology that the Titans seem to use by studying damaged or recovered Titan mechs and the research and development of Earth-made magitech. She seemed really eager about it once we all met for lunch in the Vanguard Tower mess hall. The mess hall had surprisingly good food and catered to the diets of a wide assortment of Altered species.

“So, what are you girls going to school for?” she asked once she was done gushing about the program enough to start eating her lunch.

“I’m taking Music Studies,” Poppy volunteered, “These two-year programs are intense though, we’re all going to be working our butts off if we want to keep up with classes and do our Vanguard training.”

She was right, all of us had opted for two-year programs and while each trimester’s course load wasn’t suffocating, we were going to be very busy trying to keep up while doing Vanguard training on the weekends as well. The two-year programs were bachelor degree programs and instead of two semesters, Vanguard University divided the year into three school trimesters, each with only three weeks between them. The reason we couldn’t move into the dorms yet was because the summer trimester students were doing final exams this week and those who were graduating wouldn’t be leaving the dorms for a couple of weeks to make space for new students.

“I’ll be taking the New World Synergy program,” I offered with a smile. “It’s like a mix of studies about all kinds of Altered, magic studies, environmental and social studies, and the study of Altered flora and their uses in magic and alchemy. At least that’s what I got from the program brochure. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study, but when I saw this, I knew I wanted to give it a try.”

“What about you, Kelly?” Ainslee asked as she reached out with the hand she wasn’t using to eat and placed it over my sister’s to give a gentle squeeze.

Kelly had gone into one of her quiet moods again after her training session and I was worried that she might be cycling into depression again. She had been good at fighting it off lately, and familiar faces seemed to be helping a lot, but she still had dreams sometimes about what might have happened during her lost time as a Titan captive. Those dreams always seemed to bring her down, not just because of the content, but because she could never be sure if they were real memories resurfacing or her imagination taunting her.

My sister tried her best to shake off the cloud of gloom that seemed to hover over her and gave us all a shaky smile to let us know that she was okay. “I’m fine, something we did in training just brought me back to one of those dreams. To answer your question though, Ainslee, I’ll be taking the Psychology and Counseling program. I want to be able to help people like me, who the Titans brought back, and people who have lost everything during Incursions and are trying to adjust to being Altered.”

“You can help them, I know you can, Sis,” I told her, hoping that this field of study might help her as well. Then I looked down at my empty doll-sized plate and sighed. “Well, I guess I can’t put this off any longer. I’m off to go see Vice-Commander Carpenter.”

Poppy crushed me in a hug and gave me a quick but passionate kiss. “We’ll be here waiting for you, Love.”

“Yeah, you’re our ride home,” Ainslee teased with a grin before adding, “Good luck.”

The Vice-Commander’s office wasn’t what I was expecting. It was well-organized for sure, but it also had a sort of easy comfortable feel to it. It was a small place, mostly dominated by the large plastic and metal desk in the center and a pair of cozy office chairs both behind and in front of it. Most of the wall space was bare and painted a comforting light blue, while the wall behind the desk, and the Vice-Commander herself, was dominated by a massive bookshelf that bore various personal items, including actual paper books. Those were practically antiques.

“Cadet-Major Pierce, reporting as ordered,” I reported once I flitted through the door that was being held open for me by the Vice-Commander’s personal secretary.

“Please, Lily, at ease, and have a seat,” she replied as her secretary closed the door behind me to afford us some privacy.

“Yes, Ma’am.” I flew closer to her desk and saw that she had a pair of chairs on the surface of it, one sized for Pixies and another for Sprites. I didn’t say anything more as I settled into the smaller of the chairs atop her desk. She had asked me to come here after all, so I assumed that she would give me the details when ready.

Almost as soon as I sat down, I got a ping via my comm crown requesting an information packet transfer. I quickly accepted and saw that there were several text files, including one that said Officer Manual and the others had the names of my sister, my girlfriend, my best friend, and Karen Smythe. There was also some sort of app. I didn’t install the latter yet since I wanted to be sure it was safe.

“Those files and the app are for your eyes only, as a team leader,” the Angel explained, wasting no time. “They are heavily encrypted and can only be opened by you, now that you have received them. The officer manual file is self-explanatory and contains everything that you will need to know about being an officer and all the rules and regulations that you and your team will need to abide by. We’re relatively easy-going compared to many military organizations, so keep in mind what rules and regs we have are important. Memorize them, and the contents of those personnel files as well.”

Well, that explained the files with everyone’s names. “Umm… what’s in those files?” I asked as my chest tightened with uncertainty. “I don’t really want to breach my friends’ privacy.”

The Vice-Commander smiled at me sympathetically. “I understand, but you’re also their commanding officer now and the more you know about everyone, the easier it will be for you to command them to their full potential and keep all of you safe. The information contained in those is mostly stuff that you already know or could find out easily enough on your own. Racial and special abilities, limitations, and general background information, but it also contains their psychological assessments. I want you to especially familiarize yourself with Cadet Smythe’s file since you don’t know her as well as the others.”

“Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to know all I can in case she decides to acid-beam us in the back,” I muttered.

A long and weary sigh brought my attention back to the Angel seated behind the desk. “Cadet-Major Pierce… Lily, I would like for you to give her a fair chance, to try to bring her out of her shell. She’s not the hard and uncaring person that she wants others to believe she is. Her file is quite extensive and includes some of my own observations, based on what I learned while I was inside her mind. Read it, all of it, and share it with nobody else. I think that you’ll find it very illuminating. She would not tell you anything that you read in there on her own.”

She looked so sad as she told me that, and the fact that she had changed to using my first name meant that she was making this personal. She seemed to think that I would see what she saw in Karen if I read that file. She was probably right though, I should try to read the file, learn more about her, and give her a fair chance. “I’ll read it, and I’ll give her a fair shake, and make sure the others do too,” I finally said after a moment.

“That is all I ask,” she responded with a sad smile. “She isn’t who you think she is, she is hiding so much pain beneath that prickly armor she’s wrapped herself in. She needs to allow herself to let people in and have friends. Real friends, not people like her former associates. Her file also contains what information we have on them. Keep an eye on her and don’t let any of them close to her or any of your team, they’re dangerous and may be hostile to you and Cadet Mackenzie considering recent events.”

“Recent events? You mean us kicking their friends’ asses?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Yes. Well, that and the talk I had with Mr. Lundburg’s parents earlier today,” she grumbled as a frown fixed itself firmly upon her face.

“Let me guess, they weren’t happy with Big Blue’s sentence,” I said. She did not look like a happy camper.

“No, they were not,” she agreed. “They flew to Amethyst Harbour as soon as they got wind of their son’s sentencing from his lawyer. They came, they made threats, and I had them thrown out of the building.”

“What kind of threats?” I was morbidly curious. After all, what kind of idiot would come to threaten the Vanguard on their own turf and in their city?

“Lundburg Technologies is one of the Vanguard’s major military equipment suppliers,” she replied. “Or rather, they were. They threatened to pull their ‘support’ and I kindly told them to go fuck themselves because we weren’t going to change our sentencing and let that lunatic son of theirs back on the streets. What they fail to realize is that while the personnel transports and other vehicles we buy from them are useful and cheaper than we can get elsewhere, we have plenty of them right now and we have researchers at the university working on some new magitech options that should be available soon. We also have you now, but we won’t take that for granted. The worst-case scenario is that we use another supplier until then. There are plenty of them who would be happy to take our money.”

After that, the meeting was fairly short as we got back on topic, and then she had me install the app to monitor Karen’s tracking implant and went over how to use it. Mostly it could be used to track her location and monitor her vitals, but it also had the built-in taser in case she went out of control and needed to be subdued. Vice-Commander Carpenter seemed to believe that was a long shot though and asked that I try to talk her down before resorting to drastic measures, unless she was a clear and present danger to my team or the public.

The meeting ended with her giving me some new orders. First, in addition to training my Water magic with Captain Monroe, she wanted me to teleport as much as I could manage and try to push the limits of my special ability. They were hoping that if I pushed myself, I might be able to increase the range I could tag people or objects in or discover new aspects of the ability. She also wanted me to start some group training exercises tomorrow after the morning magic training, and to include Karen.

I wasn’t sure about that, but we were going to have to bring her into the team eventually, right? At least this way we would be doing so in the relative safety of Vanguard Tower, with a trainer watching over us. It was probably the best way to do this since trust was going to have to be earned all around. Still, I wasn’t looking forward to it as I went back to the mess hall to join the others. I wasn’t looking forward to a long night of going through rules, regulations, and personnel files either.